How about this - they offer the show for free download from their own servers - like 320x240 resolution with the words "please consider subscribing to HBO" faintly watermarked in the background or appearing quasi-subliminally every so often (changes randomly).
It would suffice for people who just missed an episode and want to catch up, while reducing pirate downloads from 3rd party sources, but true fans are going to subscribe to get the real deal at full quality.
I doubt their posioning is going to work that well - they're just going to make developers refine the tracker protocol to be stronger to prevent this sort of thing (many clients already ban remote clients who sent too many bad chunks).
I bought my Prius because it's simply the most advanced mass-production car on the planet. There's nothing else that even comes close to the efficiency of the hybrid drive system, or the sheer elegance of the hybrid integration - to say nothing of the additional features that Toyota threw into their technology showcase vehicle... Sure I knew it would save me gas, but that wasn't my prime concern - I can afford gas no matter what the price.
I could afford to buy anything in the Prius price range, so there was no extra "hybrid cost" any more than there would be an extra "BMW cost" if I decided to pay $5 grand more buy a BMW.
But now that I have the car, it's easily saving me more money on gas than I would've managed had I bought another non-hybrid vehicle. And I'm still supremely happy with my purchase. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.
And, infact, Ford could only license Toyota's old, first generation hybrid system... Toyota wasn't willing to give them the newer version that's 30% more efficient (why would they?).
Actually, if fewer people ran 2K/XP as admin, there'd be a lot fewer problems with viruses and trojans - many (most?) are unable to install using "normal means" (ie: through a browsers or email client) using non-admin accounts.
I've given some serious thought to doing that myself, but I've never been hit badly enough to worry about it.
That said, some of the new rootkits are very, very good and kind of frightening. Do a bit of investigating at some of the hacker websites (like the guy who wrote the trojan which was used at Valve for the famous HL2 theft), and you'll see how sophisticated they've become since that very early version that was relatively easy to detect compared to what's out now...
For the newest trojans, aside from actually physically booting windows from a clean source (ie: bootable clean CD-ROM that can check file signatures and such), these new trojans are undetectable by even the most current scanning software (including scanning tools from sysinternals and such). They hook the OS early enough, and at such a low-level that they're completely invisible when you're running the OS itself.
Are you absolutely sure that the flags are under the control of the local stations?
I could see big issues with local control (for example, if the local cable company decides that they want to sell their own PVRs instead of people buying TiVos, and insert the protect-flag everywhere to make owning a TiVo less appealing than their own receiver).
I know that Tivo "claimed" this was the case, but if it was a local flag as opposed to something downloaded in the guide from TiVoHQ, it would be simple to build a filter to strip legit flags out - and I can't see them allowing that.
Sorry, I have a hybrid - my engine doesn't idle, or waste gas - the only excess energy being produced is when the car is using the regenerative braking system.
Assuming this guy's invention produces even a 15% gain (which I'm profoundly skeptical of given a lack of comprehensive 3rd-party, scientific proof), simply having a gas engine which shuts off when the car is stopped will save more fuel than this gadget will ever manage.
Ah, Lexmark is at it again... Gotta love that company - maybe next they'll just send out beefy guys with baseball bats to break the kneecaps of anyone who sells refilled cartridges...
I'll never buy their products anyway, and I'll make sure that everyone I know is well-informed about their business practises...
Hollywood, the MPAA and others seem to assume that we're going to just "take whatever they dish out" in order to watch movies in HD at home...
Perhaps they'll be surprised to learn that of us just don't care. I'm not so enamoured of HD quality that I'm willing to put up with the "Next Generation DIVX" player in my home.
I'm not really all that disappointed with current DVD quality - when projected with a nice DLP projector onto a decent screen, I find it quite watchable and is perfectly suitable to keep me entertained for an evening.
There's nothing that's really compelling me to purchase a new player that's going to want to be connected outside my house to monitor and authorize whatever I'm watching (and optionally cripple or destroy my hardware if they think it's been tampered-with), or have to buy new A/V gear because the current stuff I have isn't "secure enough" for the movie industry's liking.
I figure they'll very-likely have a flop on their hands. Blu-Ray will make a nice data storage format for computers, but I think the home entertainment division has a much tougher battle ahead...
A polite email to the company webmonkey would likely have accomplished the same thing.
There's something to be said for taking the higher ground. Heck, I would've just let them link the game directly, but re-written the game to serve some ads too, and made some additional revenue from it, and probably gained some additional marketing for my software products.
If I was in the market for any software this guy was writing, he could consider himself blacklisted at this point...
Looking at the amount of damage to basic infrastructure, I'd guess it's going to be at least a month or two before power is even restored and roads are cleared to a small portion of the city, much less the entire city.
It's going to be 6 months to a year before vast parts of the city are even safe to live in again, much less return to normal life...
For all intents and purposes, they're building a city from scratch.
Oh, absolutely he did. Bester is one of my favorite characters of all-time.
Sure, he was a cold, calculating, (evil?) manipulator, but the episodes that involved his wife (captured and 'altered' by the shadows) really brought the depth into the character. It'd be interesting to talk to Mr. Koenig and find out what "made Bester tick" when he was acting the part.
There were both greatscripts and great acting in B5...
The only "personal info" they found was the IMEI (serial number) of the phone that was unlocked, and the IP address that the request was generated from. Neither of which is "personal", BTW (the phone was stolen, and the IP address belongs to his ISP).
They just matched that IP address against people who post in their usergroup forum and tracked the guy down.
So the only "personal info" they used was the phone's serial number and the IP address the server logged the request coming from. So I fail to see the point of your rant.
Sure there are some good, and thus rich criminals out there. But the majority of them are fairly dumb.
Yup, the majority of people who find themselves in the "life of crime" don't do it because they're criminal masterminds looking to build their great underground lair, but because they're dumbasses who fall into the "lowest common denominator" of how to survive in a world with no marketable skills and few personal assets. Of course there are a lot more that do it to support drug habits and such.
You can see the IR sensors on the end of each slat - it's not a terribly elegant system - a better idea would be to mount a video camera directly behind the door (on either side) and have it generate a mask of the person's outline against the door, then pick the proper distribution of slats to open based on that mask.
It would likely still be very cheap (a lowres webcam-quality camera would be able to do this), and wouldn't have the detection issues this model has.
Of course, I always thought that revolving doorways were a pretty decent way of keeping air-transfer minimal instead of a doorway being held wide-open.
And the reality of this is that it won't help security ONE BIT. I mean, all a criminal/terrorist/whatever has to do is encrypt their message and any surveillance is absolutely, 100% useless. Politicians are absolute FOOLS to believe otherwise.
So it may catch "dumb" criminals, but it won't catch anyone who knows how to avoid it.
And what's to stop me, as someone who runs my own mail server (that accepts SSL connections)? Or to stop someone who offshores their email accounts to another country and uses an encrypted email client (ala hushmail)? Nothing - encryption renders all surveillance useless, and more and more software is encrypting data now (and you can be sure there will be FAR, FAR more if this legislation passes).
So I think this is dangerous, and extremely foolish. As some radio hosts mentioned today, what's the difference between this and someone slitting-open all of your mail, or monitoring all of your phone calls? And guess who will PAY for all of this extra public monitoring. You guessed it, the public that's BEING monitored!
I have a feeling that all of this may be political ass-covering however - if they put forward this proposal and it's shot-down, if something "does" happen, no politicians will lose their jobs for "not checking email" because "the public veto'ed it". Aren't politicians great...
I've thought for a number of years that the "olympics" as they currently exist should be disbanded, and an entirely new, NON PROFIT group should be set up to run the event.
The idea being that they only cover their own costs and don't generate any revenue. I'm getting sick of the obscene cost of the games as they currently exist, and those prices make it prohibitive for people to even get out and see events (even if they're able to).
I mean, look at the olympics in Greece, there were lots of events with the stands half empty or more - of course there are multiple events going on simultaneously, but I figure that ticket prices contributed rather strongly too...
Well, since it was taxpayer money that paid for them, they probably were just disposing of them rather than trying to get top dollar. Sort of a community service if you will...
Personally, if I had known that sort of riot would happen, I woulda just camped-out with refreshments and a video camera and enjoyed the spectacle (don't need an ibook).
And they could've easily avoided creating a problem in the first place by just giving people numbered tickets in the order they arrived - then calling them out in order when they were ready to sell. If someone doesn't respond within a few minutes of the number being called, they lose their spot and someone else farther down the list gets called. Simple and smart.
Doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out how to do this without causing a riot...
I advise switching tactics... This will shut them down almost every time...
Them: "Would you like to purchase our extended warranty?"
Me: "Extended warranty huh? Does it need it? I mean, I come to your store for quality goods that aren't going to fail... Is this product so sub-standard that it needs an extra warranty?"
I've had great success with this - they can't really counter it.
No Extra Warranty = quality merchandise that's not going to break
Extra Warranty = shoddy crap that isn't expected to survive (in which case why are you buying it in the first place).
Slashdot Mirror
How about this - they offer the show for free download from their own servers - like 320x240 resolution with the words "please consider subscribing to HBO" faintly watermarked in the background or appearing quasi-subliminally every so often (changes randomly).
It would suffice for people who just missed an episode and want to catch up, while reducing pirate downloads from 3rd party sources, but true fans are going to subscribe to get the real deal at full quality.
I doubt their posioning is going to work that well - they're just going to make developers refine the tracker protocol to be stronger to prevent this sort of thing (many clients already ban remote clients who sent too many bad chunks).
N.
Reporters just don't "get it".
I bought my Prius because it's simply the most advanced mass-production car on the planet. There's nothing else that even comes close to the efficiency of the hybrid drive system, or the sheer elegance of the hybrid integration - to say nothing of the additional features that Toyota threw into their technology showcase vehicle... Sure I knew it would save me gas, but that wasn't my prime concern - I can afford gas no matter what the price.
I could afford to buy anything in the Prius price range, so there was no extra "hybrid cost" any more than there would be an extra "BMW cost" if I decided to pay $5 grand more buy a BMW.
But now that I have the car, it's easily saving me more money on gas than I would've managed had I bought another non-hybrid vehicle. And I'm still supremely happy with my purchase. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.
N.
And, infact, Ford could only license Toyota's old, first generation hybrid system... Toyota wasn't willing to give them the newer version that's 30% more efficient (why would they?).
N.
Actually, if fewer people ran 2K/XP as admin, there'd be a lot fewer problems with viruses and trojans - many (most?) are unable to install using "normal means" (ie: through a browsers or email client) using non-admin accounts.
I've given some serious thought to doing that myself, but I've never been hit badly enough to worry about it.
That said, some of the new rootkits are very, very good and kind of frightening. Do a bit of investigating at some of the hacker websites (like the guy who wrote the trojan which was used at Valve for the famous HL2 theft), and you'll see how sophisticated they've become since that very early version that was relatively easy to detect compared to what's out now...
For the newest trojans, aside from actually physically booting windows from a clean source (ie: bootable clean CD-ROM that can check file signatures and such), these new trojans are undetectable by even the most current scanning software (including scanning tools from sysinternals and such). They hook the OS early enough, and at such a low-level that they're completely invisible when you're running the OS itself.
N.
Doesn't this just mean that you'll get the $150 charge (the rebate amount) if you cancel in less than 12 months?
If you choose not to take the rebate for some reason, then they're not going to charge you $150 extra on top of the cost of the unit.
N.
Are you absolutely sure that the flags are under the control of the local stations?
I could see big issues with local control (for example, if the local cable company decides that they want to sell their own PVRs instead of people buying TiVos, and insert the protect-flag everywhere to make owning a TiVo less appealing than their own receiver).
I know that Tivo "claimed" this was the case, but if it was a local flag as opposed to something downloaded in the guide from TiVoHQ, it would be simple to build a filter to strip legit flags out - and I can't see them allowing that.
N.
Sorry, I have a hybrid - my engine doesn't idle, or waste gas - the only excess energy being produced is when the car is using the regenerative braking system.
Assuming this guy's invention produces even a 15% gain (which I'm profoundly skeptical of given a lack of comprehensive 3rd-party, scientific proof), simply having a gas engine which shuts off when the car is stopped will save more fuel than this gadget will ever manage.
N.
Shorted translation:
"Please don't look for the software or support anywhere else, because even though they might be legit, I won't be able to control those other sites."
N.
And if your printing requirements need colour, for printing on CD/DVD media, or photography...?
Colour laser manufacturers gouge even more than inkjet manufacturers. Sell a printer for $400, buy replacement cartridges for $800...
N.
Ah, Lexmark is at it again... Gotta love that company - maybe next they'll just send out beefy guys with baseball bats to break the kneecaps of anyone who sells refilled cartridges...
I'll never buy their products anyway, and I'll make sure that everyone I know is well-informed about their business practises...
N.
Hollywood, the MPAA and others seem to assume that we're going to just "take whatever they dish out" in order to watch movies in HD at home...
Perhaps they'll be surprised to learn that of us just don't care. I'm not so enamoured of HD quality that I'm willing to put up with the "Next Generation DIVX" player in my home.
I'm not really all that disappointed with current DVD quality - when projected with a nice DLP projector onto a decent screen, I find it quite watchable and is perfectly suitable to keep me entertained for an evening.
There's nothing that's really compelling me to purchase a new player that's going to want to be connected outside my house to monitor and authorize whatever I'm watching (and optionally cripple or destroy my hardware if they think it's been tampered-with), or have to buy new A/V gear because the current stuff I have isn't "secure enough" for the movie industry's liking.
I figure they'll very-likely have a flop on their hands. Blu-Ray will make a nice data storage format for computers, but I think the home entertainment division has a much tougher battle ahead...
N.
Don't worry, it'll never reach North America, regardless of what it's being used for.
It would break the cardinal rule of mobile technology over here, mainly "give them the least service for the most money to maximize profits".
N.
Indeed. Very juvenile...
A polite email to the company webmonkey would likely have accomplished the same thing.
There's something to be said for taking the higher ground. Heck, I would've just let them link the game directly, but re-written the game to serve some ads too, and made some additional revenue from it, and probably gained some additional marketing for my software products.
If I was in the market for any software this guy was writing, he could consider himself blacklisted at this point...
N.
I think 2 months might be pretty optimistic...
Looking at the amount of damage to basic infrastructure, I'd guess it's going to be at least a month or two before power is even restored and roads are cleared to a small portion of the city, much less the entire city.
It's going to be 6 months to a year before vast parts of the city are even safe to live in again, much less return to normal life...
For all intents and purposes, they're building a city from scratch.
N.
Oh, absolutely he did. Bester is one of my favorite characters of all-time.
Sure, he was a cold, calculating, (evil?) manipulator, but the episodes that involved his wife (captured and 'altered' by the shadows) really brought the depth into the character. It'd be interesting to talk to Mr. Koenig and find out what "made Bester tick" when he was acting the part.
There were both greatscripts and great acting in B5...
N.
Did you even bother to read the article?
The only "personal info" they found was the IMEI (serial number) of the phone that was unlocked, and the IP address that the request was generated from. Neither of which is "personal", BTW (the phone was stolen, and the IP address belongs to his ISP).
They just matched that IP address against people who post in their usergroup forum and tracked the guy down.
So the only "personal info" they used was the phone's serial number and the IP address the server logged the request coming from. So I fail to see the point of your rant.
N.
Sure there are some good, and thus rich criminals out there. But the majority of them are fairly dumb.
Yup, the majority of people who find themselves in the "life of crime" don't do it because they're criminal masterminds looking to build their great underground lair, but because they're dumbasses who fall into the "lowest common denominator" of how to survive in a world with no marketable skills and few personal assets. Of course there are a lot more that do it to support drug habits and such.
N.
Isn't that odd - it's OK for kids to watch violence, killing, and gore, but not OK for them to see any form of romantic interaction...
Sad... Just sad...
N.
You can see the IR sensors on the end of each slat - it's not a terribly elegant system - a better idea would be to mount a video camera directly behind the door (on either side) and have it generate a mask of the person's outline against the door, then pick the proper distribution of slats to open based on that mask.
It would likely still be very cheap (a lowres webcam-quality camera would be able to do this), and wouldn't have the detection issues this model has.
Of course, I always thought that revolving doorways were a pretty decent way of keeping air-transfer minimal instead of a doorway being held wide-open.
Dave
And the reality of this is that it won't help security ONE BIT. I mean, all a criminal/terrorist/whatever has to do is encrypt their message and any surveillance is absolutely, 100% useless. Politicians are absolute FOOLS to believe otherwise.
So it may catch "dumb" criminals, but it won't catch anyone who knows how to avoid it.
And what's to stop me, as someone who runs my own mail server (that accepts SSL connections)? Or to stop someone who offshores their email accounts to another country and uses an encrypted email client (ala hushmail)? Nothing - encryption renders all surveillance useless, and more and more software is encrypting data now (and you can be sure there will be FAR, FAR more if this legislation passes).
So I think this is dangerous, and extremely foolish. As some radio hosts mentioned today, what's the difference between this and someone slitting-open all of your mail, or monitoring all of your phone calls? And guess who will PAY for all of this extra public monitoring. You guessed it, the public that's BEING monitored!
I have a feeling that all of this may be political ass-covering however - if they put forward this proposal and it's shot-down, if something "does" happen, no politicians will lose their jobs for "not checking email" because "the public veto'ed it". Aren't politicians great...
N.
I've thought for a number of years that the "olympics" as they currently exist should be disbanded, and an entirely new, NON PROFIT group should be set up to run the event.
The idea being that they only cover their own costs and don't generate any revenue. I'm getting sick of the obscene cost of the games as they currently exist, and those prices make it prohibitive for people to even get out and see events (even if they're able to).
I mean, look at the olympics in Greece, there were lots of events with the stands half empty or more - of course there are multiple events going on simultaneously, but I figure that ticket prices contributed rather strongly too...
N.
Well, since it was taxpayer money that paid for them, they probably were just disposing of them rather than trying to get top dollar. Sort of a community service if you will...
Personally, if I had known that sort of riot would happen, I woulda just camped-out with refreshments and a video camera and enjoyed the spectacle (don't need an ibook).
And they could've easily avoided creating a problem in the first place by just giving people numbered tickets in the order they arrived - then calling them out in order when they were ready to sell. If someone doesn't respond within a few minutes of the number being called, they lose their spot and someone else farther down the list gets called. Simple and smart.
Doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out how to do this without causing a riot...
N.
Well that sort of one-ups the old DIVX players that needed authorization, locked content to customers, etc...
I won't be buying any of these players or purchasing movies in this format.
N.
Try returning an opened DVD to them because you accidentally bought the full-frame version instead of letterbox...
N.
I advise switching tactics... This will shut them down almost every time...
Them: "Would you like to purchase our extended warranty?"
Me: "Extended warranty huh? Does it need it? I mean, I come to your store for quality goods that aren't going to fail... Is this product so sub-standard that it needs an extra warranty?"
I've had great success with this - they can't really counter it.
No Extra Warranty = quality merchandise that's not going to break
Extra Warranty = shoddy crap that isn't expected to survive (in which case why are you buying it in the first place).
Give it a try!
N.